Living in a large metropolitan city, you’re bound to encounter hearing two, three, four or even more languages in a single afternoon. Diversity is wonderful and I’m envious of those people who can master more than one language.

Have you ever been driving down the street and encountered a billboard in a language other than English and been very curious about what it’s saying? Or how about when you’re travelling in a foreign country and you see little ads on trains or on the sides of buses and you wonder, what the heck it’s saying.

I feel that way all the time. It really peaks my curiosity to know what the advertisement is selling, even though I know it’s not really a big deal, the not understanding part is what makes it all the more appealing.

In my neighborhood, there are billboards in Spanish, Korean, and English. I’ve been struggling to learn the Spanish language for a good portion of my life, so when I’m able to comprehend and actually understand the message, I get so excited. As far as the Korean advertisements go, well, I’m completely lost there.

I have friends who learned multiple languages when they were children. So adding another language to their repertoire seems to come naturally to them. For me, and probably many people, learning a new language as an adult can be challenging, but not impossible.

I absorb and am challenged the most when I’m actually forced to use the language in another country, no matter how silly I think I sound. When I was travelling in Spain for a couple of months, I learned to communicate more in a week, than I ever had in language school. Being surrounded by people who speak another language, you’re pretty much forced to communicate and that’s quite liberating. It’s such an incredible feeling when the language clicks and you understand. It feels like a whole new world has just opened up. Pretty cool.

Another great way to communicate is through T-shirts. Say what you want to say, in any language you want. Of course, we have T-shirts in Spanish, French, and Italian, but we also have a huge variety of T-shirts in many more languages for you to choose from. So why not spark someone’s curiosity with your Spanish T-shirt? It could end up generating a new conversation with a random stranger, which might change their world and yours, or at least make it a bit more interesting.